Law of Tort

Law of Tort
What is Tort?
- The French word of ‘wrong’
- That set of rules specifying certain actions and omissions as wrongs which give rise to civil liability
- Almost entirely based on case law

Tort of Negligence
- The “neighbour principle” o “The rule that you are to love your neighbour becomes in law, you must not injure your neighbour” Lord Atkin, Donoghue v Stevenson
 Who is neighbour? Persons who are so closely and directly affected by action that one ought reasonably to have them in contemplation when thinking about such an action
- 3 Elements to Tort of Negligence o DUTY OF CARE:
 Spandeck Engineering v DSTA
• Landmark case for tort of negligence in Singapore
• Becomes a universal test for all cases on negligence of tort
• Judged that there must be a two-stage test applied
• Factual foreseeability is a prerequisite
 Factual Foreseeability (a prerequisite)
• Even when you prove this, there is no duty of care yet
• Conversely, only when there is factual foreseeability then we go to the test.
• This is the ability to see beforehand the likely effects of a certain action or inaction
• Is it foreseeable that an action would result in a certain consequence? If it is, then factual foreseeability can be established
 Proximity (First stage)
• A legal notion – is the party close enough for duty of care to arise?
• Physical proximity – closeness in space and time
• Causal proximity – Lord Atkin’s statement above (one should keep in mind those people that are so close to them such that as they do something they should know what is going to happen to them)
• Circumstantial proximity – circumstances to establish the relationship between parties o Voluntary assumption by the defendant o Reliance on the part of the plaintiff
 Policy (Second stage)
• Even if proximity is established, or prima facie duty of care is established, on policy grounds, they can hold that there is no duty of care due to various reasons o Would imposing a